“Badlands” was the debut film from American auteur Terrance Malick and brings us the story of lovers on the run.Released in 1973 and starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, the film has its characters desperate for something else.Loosely Based on the true story of Charles Starkweather, the teenage spree killer who tore a path through Nebraska and Wyoming in the late 1950s.Along for the ride was his 14-year-old girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate.

Holly is a lonely 15-year-old girl in a small Texas town who lives with her dad.He voice echoes throughout the film in voice-over that is more than just narration but is like a diary of her thoughts and feeling about life.While twirling her baton one afternoon in the front yard a young and muscular garbage collector starts up a conversation, this is Kit.Kit is a charismatic bad boy from the other side of the tracks with a strong resemblance to James Dean.Kit is about 10 years older than Holly and their fast-moving relationship has been kept from her father.But when he finds out he takes it out on her dog by shooting it in the yard.Kit pleads to him that he is a good man and that he means only the best, but this doesn’t work.When things come to a head Kit gets violent and when trying to take Holly away he shoots him dead.Holly seems rather indifferent to this.It could be that she is in a state of shock cause she does slap Kit, but sees this as a chance for freedom.They bury his body and set the house ablaze before hitting the dusty open road.

They hideout in the woods making treehouses and eating what they can find or steal.When a group of bounty hunters comes across their camp Kit is ready for them and kills all 3.Holly is quick to defend him although does she really know what kind of person he really is?They run to a friend of Kit’s and stay with him for a while until Kit’s paranoia gets the better of him and shoots him in the back when he thinks he is about to rat on them.Kit and Holly hit the road once again but for Holly life on the run is still a life of solitude and loneliness.She doesn’t take part in the killings but she is loyal to Kit.They become a part of the landscape just like all of the other animals we see in the barren plains.They make their own roads with no destination in mind.Although they are both looking to be free, they end up creating their own prisons.The law finally catches up with them in Montana.He leaves Holly so she doesn’t get hurt and burns a path through the plains.He seems to have outrun the police but sabotages his own car, and allows himself to be caught.He is polite and congenial to all of the law enforcement people.He is so charismatic and likable that some of the cops even ask for his autograph.

This is one of the great films of the 70s and introduced the world to Terrance Malick.His films are deeply meditative and in tune with the natural world and peoples involvement with it.He later went on to direct the equally brilliant “Days of Heaven” in 1978.Only then to take an astonishing 20-year break from filmmaking and reappearing with “The Thin Red Line” in 1998.He has now been making films at a regular rate.An artist and philosopher Malick is truly one of a kind.

Controversial in its time Oliver Stone’s 1994 film “Natural Born Killers” was at the center of the long heated debate of whether media violence influences actual violence, especially in young people.Similar to rock music and horror movie outrage in the 80s.It’s just one of those issues that will never go away.

This film is an all-out assault on the senses, an acid trip down desert roads and small towns.A sharply satirical look at the early 90’s when the “Talk Show” was king and tabloid journalism went to unimaginable lengths.While inspired by the true story of Bonnie and Clyde and the Arthur Penn film, “Natural Born Killers” is pure fiction.Here we have Mickey and Mallory Knox, a love-crazed couple on a vicious killing spree and becoming a tabloid and talk show megastars in the process.The film is shot completely in dutch angles giving every moment a jagged and uneasy feeling.The editing is a cocaine-fueled chop shop with almost 3,000 cuts.Cutting in black and white footage, animation, different film stocks, you name it it’s in there.

Mickey, “the big bad wolf," is played by Woody Harrelson and is a revelation when compared to his previous persona of the meek country boy Woody Boyd in the popular T.V. show “Cheers”.Mallory is played by the little-known actress Juliette Lewis.While looking like a young Patti Smith, she matches Harrelson’s crazy intensity.A pre-drug rehab Robert Downy Jr. plays Wayne Gale, a self-righteous Geraldo Rivera like television journalist who will do anything to get the story, no matter how many people he hurts along the way.On the hunt for Mickey and Mallory is an equally twisted Detective Jack Scagnetti (Tom Sizemore), while being an author himself he falls for the media hype surrounding the couple.Comedian Rodney Dangerfield also goes against type as Mallory’s abusive father, while brief his scenes are pretty amazing.

At about the midpoint of the film Mickey and Mallory run into a Native American man who can see them for who they are.He is the only selfless and kind character in the whole film.Around the fire, he puts them into a nightmarish trance where they relive the abuse inflicted upon them by their parents.Mickey is jolted awake only to shoot the native man as a reflex.As they leave this is the only time he feels real regret for what they’ve done.Outside they become surrounded by an army of rattlesnakes and are bitten numerous times.Life on the run is about to come to an end in the parking of a pharmacy where they try to get the “snake juice”.Separated and taken to prison they come under the eye of Warden Wurlitzer, played by Tommy Lee Jones.Just like all the other characters, the warden is an extremely intense looking dude like he is 2 seconds from a massive heart attack.However, the warden allows Wayne Gale a special post-Super Bowl live interview with Mickey himself.This is the just the moment needed to light a fuse and bring down the whole establishment.While trying to figure out why Mickey is the way he is we come to a tipping point.“I guess I’m just a Natural Born Killer” (Hey, that’s the title of the film) after those words a prison riot erupts and an orgy of anger, violence, and mayhem is released.Mickey and Mallory escape and our heroes/mass murderers are free and their newest super fan Wayne Gale is along for the ride.Until they make an example of him being the worst kind of person.The epitome of what is wrong with modern society.He begs for his life and that he needs to survive to tell their tale.They point to the running camera and his life is ended. Does this film glamorize violence and manipulate young minds into deviant life choice? Does music?Does the daily news?

“Bonnie and Clyde” was released in 1967 and based on the true story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow whose depression era crime spree is one of the most infamous in American History.Starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway this film is a true classic.The film was released in a time when the country was going through some tough times both socially and politically.The film's depiction of on-screen violence was quite the landmark in that it set the tone for films to come.The filmmakers don’t just show the violence, but the consequences of it as well.It depicts Bonnie and Clyde as heroes even as they rob banks and murder police officers.They were also decades ahead of their time as they were some of the first media superstars.They were proud of what they were doing and told people “We rob banks”.They took pictures of themselves holding guns and looking tough, especially Bonnie with a cigar in her mouth and a gun on her hip.Bonnie was a lonely and bored small-town waitress with no hopes for the future, while Clyde was an ex-con with a talent for stealing cars.They were the perfect match and fell in love almost immediately.The film is so many things it’s a love story, a road movie, a crime drama and even funny at times.

The themes of personal freedom, rebelling against authority, and strong women fit in perfectly with the ideals of the 1960s.Bonnie and Clyde end up forming the Barrow Gang which included his brother Buck and his wife Blanche and C. W.Moss a young gas station attendant who is good at driving and fixing cars.During a bank robbery, while the gang gathers up all the money, Clyde asks an old man in overalls if “That’s his money or the banks?” “Its mine,” he says and Clyde lets him keep it.Clyde is not out to harm and steal from the good blue collar working man, but the establishment itself.I think he sees himself as a sort of vigilante against the oppressive government.

While the film is light on music and quiet in some dramatic moments, there are several scenes with a loud banjo playing.It just doesn’t seem to fit.It’s probably put in for a light-hearted and comedic tone, but I found it quite distracting.The editing was also a little off-putting at times.When Bonnie and Clyde are hiding out and in bed together Clyde proclaims again that he is no lover boy and gets up frustrated, the cuts are rather disorienting.I get what the director wants to communicate, but I just think it looks bad and sloppy.There were also a few scenes that looked way too melodramatic and overacted.The actress Estelle Parson who plays Blanche actually won an Academy Award for her role which I thought was way over the top and actually annoying at times.

As I mentioned previously the violence is quite brutal and realistic for the time.There are a number of shootouts with the cops and in the last one Buck is shot in the face but staggers around in a bloody mess for the next few scenes before finally dying.Both Bonnie and Clyde get shot in the arm and Blanche gets glass in her eyes.But the ultimate scene is when Bonnie and Clyde finally reach the end of their crime spree and are taken out in a hail of gunfire. I really liked this film and can see why people call it a classic and although its 50 years old it still holds up as an entertaining an engaging film.